Blizzard forum goers will soon no longer have to fear the dreaded internet troll. (Source: Amazon.com)

Changes will first go into effect on Starcraft II forums, WoW forums likely next

Internet
trolling charitably could be referred to as a pop culture phenomena.
People online seem often to develop proclivities for trying to get
under each others' skin and in the most extreme cases a troll is
born.

But trolls days of lurking around internet message
boards may be limited -- at least if Activision Blizzard can help
it. The company, which makes the best-sellingWorld
of WarcraftandStarcraft
franchise has
announced that it will be forcing
players to use their real names on online message
boards.Starcraft
II: Wings of Liberty,
will be the first game to enact the new rules when it releases on
July 27. Those changes will quickly be rolled out to other
games -- likely including World
of Warcraft,
the world's most popular paid MMORPG, with over 11.5
million subscribers.

The company is offering players the
option of putting their in-game handle next to their real world
name. However, it will not currently force players to do this.
It says that players choosing to do so will be helping to create a
more positive environment.

It says the changes in generally
should cut down on trolling and nasty behavior in the forums.

Marc
Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic
Privacy Information Center, says such erasures of privacy are nothing
new. He points out that the world's largest social networking
site, Facebook, recently switched to requiring real names, and that
businesses are typically well within their rights to demand such
provisions.

That said, he said such moves are
disappointing as part of the magic of the internet is anonymity and
alter-egos. He states, "Part of the fun of the online
gaming would was the sense that you could construct a character
different form who you were in the real world."

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Give this poster a 6, s/he's quite clearly put into words every concern that I and many others have on the matter of this change. As someone who's had to deal with a few stalkers in my time this change is making me glad I quit WoW months ago.